J.R. CROUSE WINS MODIFIED FEATURE ON SATURDAY AT FIVE MILE POINT
SPEEDWAY.

KIRKWOOD, NY…The official 59th season
opener took place this past Saturday night at Five Mile Point Speedway.J.R. Crouse was the winner of the Modified 30
lap point race opener.Mike Smith was
the IMCA point race winner with Jamie Batzel taking top honors in the
Sportsman.The Pure Stock win went to
Charlie Gilbert with the Lightning Cat Expert class being won by Cody Decker
and the novice division win going to Tyler Harpell.

Wade Decker and J.R. Crouse sat on the front row of the 30
lap Modified feature event on Saturday night but it was third place starter
James Cornell that wasted no time as he took the lead on lap number 1.Cornell looked strong as he quickly pulled
away from second place running Crouse and Decker.An unusually high number of cautions slowed
the pace of the event mostly for minor spins.Two drivers that took advantage were Mike Bowman who started tenth and
Tom McGurrin who started in twelfth.Both were on the move during the first half
of the event.

By lap 20 Cornell looked to be comfortably in charge as
Crouse and Decker continued to chase him down as now Stewart Friesen Bowman and
Mike Colsten made up the top five. The final caution of the event occurred on
lap 22 for a slowing Danny Tyler.On the
restart Cornell appeared to be developing a problem as Crouse quickly tried to
cash in.On lap 25 Crouse powered
underneath Cornell for the lead.Cornell
continued to fade as the laps wound down.At the finish Crouse would go on for the popular victory with Decker
having his best FMP finish in second.Bowman, Friesen and McGurrin completed the top
five.

Crouse commented on his victory, “We had a tough start to
the night when we broke the frame in practice tonight.We got the car back together and it felt
great all evening long.”Cornell summed
up his final laps of the feature event, “We had a right rear tire going down in
the late stages of the event which caused me to push up the race track.I was fighting the car the final ten laps
just trying to finish.”

The IMCA Modified feature event was the first race since the
passing of 2006 Track Champion Mike Stolarcyk, III.The race was filled with emotions as a number
of invaders took part in the event to honor Mike.Every driver in the field wanted to win this
feature as Mike was such a key part in the growth of the class at Five Mile
Point Speedway.Dale Caswell and Mike
Smith sat on the front row for the start of the 20 lap feature event.Smith took advantage of his outside starting
spot and led the distance for the victory.On lap 19 the entire field slowed as “Big” Mike Stolarcyk drove the 2006
championship car of “little” Mikes on to the speedway to lead the field down
for the double checkered flags.The
field followed the number III across the finish line to a standing ovation from
the packed grandstand.At the conclusion
of the event Mike Smith donated his race winnings to the education fund of Mike
Stolarcyk, III children.Tom Eiklor was credited with second place followed by Scott
Bennett, Cliff Pierce and Joe Cole.

Jamie Batzel took the lead from Jerry Craig on lap 4 of the
Sportsman main event and never looked back taking the checkers in the 20
lapper.Brad Grim, opening day winner
Grant Hilfiger, Chris Wood and Joey Colsten completed the top five.

Charlie Gilbert made a last lap pass of Tyler Yeagle to win the Pure Stock feature event.Yeagle, who was
looking for his first win wound up second followed by Shane Wolf, Jr., T.J.
Anderson and Jim Sykes.

The Lightning Cat Expert feature was won by Cody Decker with
Tyler Harpell winning the novice feature event.

The “A League of Their Own” feature event was postponed
after a lap one incident involving TryntjeKeesler.Keeslers car slammed the homestretch wall after the
throttle stuck in her car.Keesler was transported to WilsonHospital
with a possible leg fracture. No other details were available at the time of
this story.The event will be made up on
Sunday, May 17th.